FR3077744A1 - COURIER SORTING SYSTEM WITH ROBOT BOWL INJECTION SHUTTER ON CONVEYOR - Google Patents

Abstract

The sorting installation (1) according to the invention comprises sorting outlets (2) aligned along a sorting conveyor (3) each provided with a housing (4) for a container (5) in which sorted mail items (6) are stored. The installation also comprises a conveyor (8) of bins which extends in a certain conveying direction (F2) under said sorting outlets for transporting bins filled with sorted mail items from the sorting outlets to a feed-in port. feeding (7) of the sorting conveyor. The installation further comprises a shuttle robot (9) able to roll on the ground (S1) autonomously along the sorting outlets, said robot comprising a handling means (12) able to extract a tray from a housing. a sorting outlet and place it on the bins conveyor in length.

Description

Technical area

The field of the invention is that of sorting mail items in bins in postal sorting centers.

The invention relates more particularly to a sorting installation comprising sorting outlets aligned along a sorting conveyor each provided with a housing for a bin in which sorted mail items are stored and also comprising a bin conveyor which extends in a certain conveying direction under said sorting outlets to transport bins filled with sorted mail items from the sorting outlets to a feed inlet of the sorting conveyor.

Prior art

Currently in a postal sorting center, the bins loaded with mail items are moved manually from the sorting outlets to the bin conveyor by sorting operators.

However, the arrangement of the sorting outlets above the container conveyor and the orientation of the containers in the accommodation require operators to extract the containers to

a piece of arm and of the turn from 9 0 ⁰ before the deposit oriented in the length on the conveyor of bins. This handling of bins is so often the cause

muscle or joint problems in

Operators.

Statement of the invention

The object of the invention is therefore to remedy the aforementioned problems.

AT this effect, The invention at for object a installation sorting comprising of the outputs of sorting aligned the along a conveyor sorting each provided of a

housing for a bin in which sorted mail items are stored, a bin conveyor which extends in a certain conveying direction under said sorting outlets for transporting bins filled with sorted mail articles from sorting outlets to a feed inlet for the sorting conveyor, characterized in that it further comprises a shuttle robot able to run on the ground autonomously along the sorting outlets, said robot comprising a handling means able to extract a bin 'a housing of a sorting outlet and to place it on the bin conveyor, said handling means comprising a slide having a low end which is slidably coupled to said bin conveyor, said handling means being arranged to release in upper part of the slide the tank extracted from its housing so that the tank slides to the lower part of the slide by the effect of gravity, and in that the means of handling ion comprises a motorized roller roller which is arranged between the lower part of the slide and the bin conveyor and which is designed to drive the bin out of the slide on the bin conveyor in a direction transverse to the conveying direction so that the bin at the outlet of the slide is driven simultaneously by the roller and the bin conveyor to perform a rotational movement of 90 ° on the bin conveyor.

The idea underlying the invention consists in automating the step of extracting and injecting bins on the bins conveyor from the sorting outlets.

The idea consists in particular in using a slide to move by gravity a bin from a sorting outlet to the bin conveyor and to impose a rotation of 90 ° on the bin at the outlet of the toboggan in order to orient it in length on the bin conveyor.

The rotational movement of the bin is here effected via a simultaneous drive by the roller and the bin conveyor in two directions which are perpendicular to one another.

The sorting equipment according to the invention can also have the following particularities:

- the roller of the motorized roller is aligned with the center line of the slide;

- the speed of movement of the tray induced by the roller is lower than the speed of movement of the tray induced by the tray conveyor;

- the motorized roller is designed to operate in reverse when the rotation of the tank is less than 90 °;

- The shuttle robot comprises a fixed flat roller disposed between the motorized roller and the container conveyor to rotate the container during its rotational movement;

- The shuttle robot includes a retractable flat roller capable of being deployed on the container conveyor to rotate the container during its rotational movement.

Advantageously, the motorization of the roller roller here makes it possible to control the speed of insertion of the container on the container conveyor so that the speed of movement of the container on the roller is constantly lower than the speed of displacement of the container on the bin conveyor.

The arrangement of the roller of the motorized roller in the extension of the median of the slide also makes it possible to create a central support point under the container while the container is in contact with the slide or the container conveyor by two support points.

The point of contact between the tank and the roller thus makes it possible to balance the tank on the roller to facilitate its rotation of 90 ° at the outlet of the slide.

Brief presentation of the drawings

The present invention will be better understood and others

benefits will appear on reading the description Detailed of the embodiment taken as an example nothing limiting and illustrated by the appended drawings,

wherein :

Figure 1 is a schematic representation of the top of a sorting installation according to the invention;

FIG. 2 schematically represents in profile a shuttle robot in front of a sorting outlet of the sorting installation according to the invention;

FIG. 3 schematically represents from above a part of the shuttle robot of the sorting installation according to the invention.

Description of the embodiment

There is shown in Figure 1 a sorting installation 1 according to the invention which comprises sorting outlets 2 aligned along a sorting conveyor 3 each with a housing 4 for a bin 5 in which mail items 6 sorted are stored.

Also shown in FIG. 1 is a feed inlet 7 designed to put mail items 6 in series on the sorting conveyor 3 in the conveying direction F1 to then be sorted in the corresponding sorting outlets 2.

A conveyor 8 of trays is also provided under the sorting outlets 2 for conveying the trays 5 loaded with mail items 6 from the sorting outlets 2 to the feed inlet 7 in a conveying direction F2.

The extraction of a bin 5 from a housing 4 of a sorting outlet 2 and its injection on the conveyor 8 of bins under said sorting outlet 2 are here carried out by means of a shuttle robot 9 able to roll at ground SI independently along the sorting outlets 2 in the direction of movement F3.

The shuttle robot 9 is slidably coupled to a guide rail 10 which extends in front of the conveyor 8 of trays over its entire length, as visible in FIGS. 1 to 3.

As shown in FIG. 2, the shuttle robot 9 comprises a frame 11, here in the shape of an L with a plate 11a on casters and a folder 11b, on which is mounted a handling means 12 able to extract a container from a housing sorting outlet and place it on the bin conveyor.

The handling means 12 comprises a motorized gripping head 13 comprising two parallel horizontal bars, telescopic and vertically movable for extracting a container 5 from the housing 4 from a sorting outlet 2.

The handling means also comprises a slide 14 for tray 5 which extends under the telescopic head so that the telescopic grip head 13 descends vertically to deposit the tray on the toboqqan.

The slope of the toboqqan 14 is therefore chosen so that the trays 5 slide smoothly up to the conveyor 8 of trays.

The toboqqan 14 may also consist of an alignment of rollers or qalets 15 mounted free in rotation in order to facilitate the folding of the trays 5 and to tolerate lower slope inclinations of the slide.

There is shown in Figure 3, the shuttle robot 9 according to the invention without the gripping head 13 and where the lower end of its slide is provided with a motorized roller 16 with roller 17 which is interposed between the lower end of the slide 14 and the rail 10 of the conveyor 8 of tanks.

The roller 17 is here oriented perpendicular to the conveyor 8 so as to move the tank 5 in a transverse direction F4 to the conveying direction F2, as shown in FIG. 3.

The diameter of the roller 17 is here greater than that of the motorized roller 16, for example of the order of 1.5 to 2 times greater, so that the tray 5 moving on the roller 17 is not in contact with the motorized roller 16.

It will thus be understood that the tanks 5 having a bottom deformed by the distribution of their load towards the front or the rear, for example a convex bottom or a twisted bottom, can all be moved by the roller 17.

The roller 17 also has a width less than the width of the tray 5 so that the tray 5 is in contact with the roller 17 on a single fulcrum.

In general, the roller will always have a bearing surface less than the bearing surface of the container on the

As also median Ml

slide 15 or sure the conveyor 8 of bins 5. depicted on the Figure 3, the roller 17 east arranged in the extension of the line of the slide to that the bac 5 sliding from

centered and in balance slide 14 is presented on the roller 17.

Thus, at the outlet of the slide 14, the tray 5 will initially have two support points with the slide 14 and a central support point with the roller 17, then, once in contact with the tray conveyor, the tray 5 will have two support points with the conveyor 8 of trays and a central support point with the roller 17.

During the training of the tray 5 by the conveyor 8 of trays, the single fulcrum with the roller 17 will move under the tray 5 to put the tray in imbalance on the roller 17 and favor the pivoting of the tray 5 to that it performs a 90 ° rotational movement in the direction of rotation of the arrow Ri.

It will thus be understood that the friction forces of the container 5 on the conveyor 8 of containers and on the roller 17 generate rotation torques to give the rotation movement to container 5.

In order to guarantee optimal rotation of the container at 90 ° on the container conveyor 8, the displacement speed of the container 5 induced by the roller 17 must be less than the displacement speed of the container 5 induced by the container conveyor 8.

Thus, to guarantee this speed differential, a control / command unit 18 is installed on the shuttle robot 9 to control the speed of rotation of the roller from data such as the conveying speed of the conveyor 8 of trays, the distribution of the filling the trays 5 with mail items stored at the front or rear of the tray, and even the weight of the trays.

A cell 19, shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, capable of detecting the positioning of a bin at the exit from the slide 19 is also installed on the conveyor 8 under each sorting outlet 2.

The cells 19 are here designed to produce positioning data for the tank and transmit them to the control unit via wireless communication represented by the dotted arrow Di.

Thus, if the rotation of the container 5 on the container conveyor 8 is less than a certain threshold, the control / command unit 18 controls the motorized roller 16 running in reverse for a few seconds, for example between 3 and 5 seconds, in order to move the tank back towards the slide.

After this time, the control / command unit restores the forward drive of the motorized roller 16.

This back and forth movement of the container on the roller 17 is reproduced as many times as necessary in order to guarantee a complete 90 ° rotation movement of the container.

The shuttle robot 9 also comprises a fixed flat roller 20 disposed between the motorized roller 16 and the conveyor 8 of trays and a retractable flat roller 21 capable of being deployed on the conveyor 8 of trays.

These rollers are here designed to rotate the tank 5 during its rotational movement and prevent rotation of the tank beyond 90 °.

The retractable roller 21 is deployed on the conveyor 8 downstream of the fixed roller 20 which itself is downstream of the roller 17 of the motorized roller 16 relative to the conveying direction F2.

If the conveying direction F2 is reversed, the control / command unit 18 controls the retraction of the retractable roller 21 out of the container conveyor 8 so as not to hinder the conveying of the containers on the container conveyor coming from upstream of the conveyor 8 in said reverse conveying direction.

It will be understood that the slide can be provided with a fixed roller and a retractable roller at the downstream and upstream ends of the motorized roller relative to the conveying direction, so that the rotation aid is effective in both directions. movement of the tank conveyor.

Without limiting the scope of the invention, several shuttle robots 9 may be used along the conveyor 8 of trays in order to accelerate the rate of extraction and injection of trays 5 on the conveyor of trays.

Claims (5)

1. Sorting installation (1) comprising sorting outlets (2) aligned along a sorting conveyor (3) each provided with a housing (4) for a bin (5) in which mail items ( 6) sorted are stored, a container conveyor (8) which extends in a certain conveying direction (F2) under said sorting outlets to transport bins filled with sorted mail items from the sorting outlets to an entrance feed (7) of the sorting conveyor, characterized in that it further comprises a shuttle robot (9) able to run on the ground (SI) autonomously along the sorting outlets, said robot comprising a means of handling (12) capable of extracting a bin from a housing of a sorting outlet and placing it on the bin conveyor, said handling means comprising a slide (14) having a low end which is slidably coupled to said bin conveyor, said handling means being arranged to release in the upper part of the tobo ggan the tray extracted from its housing so that the tray slides to the lower part of the slide by the effect of gravity, and in that the handling means comprises a motorized roller (16) with roller (17) which is arranged between the lower part of the slide and the bin conveyor and which is designed to drive the bin out of the slide on the bin conveyor in a direction transverse (F4) to the conveying direction (F2) so that the bin at the exit of the slide is driven simultaneously by the roller and the bin conveyor to perform a 90 ° rotational movement (RI) on the bin conveyor. 2. Sorting installation (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that said roller of the motorized roller is aligned with the center line (Ml) of said slide. 3. Sorting installation (1) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the speed of movement of the tray induced by said roller is less than the speed of movement of the tray induced by said conveyor of trays. 4. Sorting installation according to any one of the claims 3, characterized in that said motorized roller is designed to operate in reverse mode when the rotation of the tank is less than 90 °. Sorting plant any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that said shuttle robot comprises a flat roller between said motorized roller and said container conveyor to rotate the container during its rotational movement. 6. Sorting installation (1) according to claim 5, characterized in that said shuttle robot comprises a retractable flat roller (21) capable of being deployed on said container conveyor to rotate the container during its rotational movement.